Tag Archives: Posters

The virtual exhibition En guerre: French illustrators and World War I has been created in 2014 by the University of Chicago Library. The exhibition looks at some major aspects of the First World War, such as the Allied powers and the Centrals, but also at the home front and children. The images show book covers, images from illustrated books, postcards and posters. There is a printed catalogue for the original exhibition.

The World War I Collection: Posters has been created by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This digital collection contains 12,300 posters published in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and Russia, Italy, Austria, Canada and Hungary, to mention here only the countries with more than 100 posters in this collection. The size and variety of this collection is extraordinary. There are several filters to make a selection (e.g. country of origin, language, creator) and you can set the time period. For 1914-1918 there are some 10,600 items. The results can be viewed in a list or in a grid. It is possible to create a user account, to save your search questions and create your own collections. This collections can only be viewed with an English interface.

The digital collection Gallipoli – Century Ireland is part of the Century Ireland project of RTE, the Irish radio and television. This project concerning the Irish involvement in the First World War focuses on the Irish soldiers serving in the expedition to Gallipoli. In the collection you will find maps, aerial photographs and galleries with photos, drawings, works of art and posters. There are entries from regimental diaries and eyewitness accounts. The guides lead you to themes such as the home front, decorations for courageous actions, remembrance, the role of the Royal Navy and the Turkish army. There are also are interviews with historians, videos and films. Educational resources are also presented in this collection, and there is a section with a bibliography and links to relevant websites.

The virtual exhibition Archives 14-18 en Wallonie has been created by the Belgian National Archives. The website functions as a showcase of and gateway to materials in the Wallon provinces of Belgium. There are nearly 120 items, You can find here examples of letters, photographs, posters, court records and much more. There is a free text search field (Recherche) and you can search using a great variety of tags. You can also browse for individual archives or look for specific years, even up to 1925. The section Plus+ offers a selection of websites and points to a general guide for archival records concerning the First World War and Belgium. This virtual exhibition can only be viewed In French.

Depending on the country where you access this virtual exhibition the interface at Google Cultural Institute uses a particular language, which can be changed using the very narrow navigation bar at the bottom of the screen.

The Bancroft Library has also digitized 68 British posters from the First World War (Calisphere; OAC), some 75 Canadian First World War posters (Calisphere, OAC), and 26 French posters and broadsides from this period (Calisphere, OAC). Both Calisphere and OAC offer a free text search within the collections. OAC allows also searching in the collection guide for non-digitized items.

– Libri: in this collection with some 2,400 books you can find works on a variety of subjects, ranging from biographies, military treatises and tracts about health and medicine to sociological studies, literature and legislation.

– Periodici: in this collection with nearly 900 items you will find journals and magazines, both general publications and special journals for subjects such as economy, society, finance and industry. There are also digitized trench journals, official bulletins and war diaries.

– Iconografia: in this small section with just 150 items you can find materials such as postcards, posters and manifests, illustrations and cartoons. Some illustrations show the life of Italian prisoners of war in Austria.

– Carte geografiche: this section contains 70 maps, most of them created by geographical institutes. The maps show in particular the regions on the border with the Habsburg Empire. The maps from 1919 show the new border with Austria.

– Spartiti musicali: in this section with some 300 items you can find all kinds of musical scores. There are military marches, festive hymns and popular songs, works for choir and songs for children.